About Gum-tec®

The Gum-tec® material is made and supplied by Gumdrop Ltd, a chewing gum recycling company. Gumdrop Ltd was founded by Anna Bullus, with the goal of tackling the issue of gum drop litter across the UK. Gumdrop Ltd has two sides of the business, the first is collecting gum litter via the Gum Drop bins (image above) the collected gum then goes through a sorting process where other litters are able to be sorted from the gum. The gum can then be turned into ‘Gum-tec®’ which is a plastic injection moulding grade material which can be used by plastic moulding companies like Great Central Plastics to turn gum litter into reusable, functional products.

The second side of the Gumdrop Ltd business is working directly with chewing gum manufacturers who generate a lot of waste whilst manufacturing gum. This waste can also be turned into Gum-tec® and once again used by eco-friendly moulders to make reusable products.

You might be wondering how on earth can chewing gum be turned into moulded products? Chewing gum is a synthetic rubber, made from polyisobutylene.

Polyisobutylene (PIB) is part of the olefin polymer family and has been in existence since the 1930s. PIB is used in chewing gum as an elastomeric formulation when creating the basic mass of chewing gum. – source busscorp.com

PIB is the element from gum that can be utilised to turn into Gum-tec®, the main issue with gum litter is that it’s not biodegradable. Therefore, the gum litter found on UK streets will be there for years unless cleared up. According to Gum Drop Ltd, it costs approximately 3p to make a piece of gum but removing a piece of gum litter from the pavement can cost up to £1.50.

GUM-TEC® AT A GLANCE

-          UK SOURCED

-          BUDGET-FRIENDLY

-          AVAILABLE IN ANY COLOUR

-          RECYCLABLE IN CLOSED LOOPS

APPLICATION

Gum-tec® is a great alternative to polypropylene (PP). Due to the nature of how Gum-tec® is made this material doesn't have food-grade approval when used in plastic mouldings. Gum-tec® is perfect for products that don't require food-grade certification, below are some product examples we recommend using Gum-tec® for. If your product doesn't require food-grade certification there is a good chance that Gum-tec® will be a suitable option for your eco-friendly plastic product.

TECHNICAL DATA SHEET AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST